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Black man flies solo By Mart Zirnask Published Eesti Ekspress 2 October 2009 Political observer Abdul Turay columns' are causing politician to line up, publicly to churn out replies. What lies behind this phenomenon? One day, Abdul Turay was walking through a small birch-edged Tallinn parking lot Suddenly a young gentleman, driving a car shouted out: “Hey nigger, you fucking nigger! Get the fuck out of my country!!” For fun Turay answered him in French (which he learned in his native country of Great Britain). The other person was silently surprised for a moment and then carried on shouting abuse.......also in French. “Totally unbelievable,” Turay said rolling with laughter. “Then I thought for a moment that this is indeed an odd country.” Turay didn't say there is large scale racism in Estonia. He did say he has had more positive experiences than negative ones. But he wouldn't permit the paper to name the cafe where we rested for a chat. (E...
Playboy cover girl and Estonian Foreign Policy From Marko Mihkelson's Blog Published 24 August I do not regularly read the weekly paper The Baltic Times, but sometimes, especially whilst flying, it catches the eye. It's one of the few, if not the only English language press publications, which reflects events in the Baltics. I am not up-to-date about who is behind this publication today and what is going on with the editorial line. But especially recently, I have noticed very bizarre editorial choice and stories of questionable journalistic value being published. Yesterday on a plane back from Riga I picked up and read TBT's latest number (August 20-26 668). In the attached opinion piece stared back the heading: “The difficult lessons of Estonia's foreign policy”, authored by Tartu University “political scientist and foreign policy analyst” Anna-Maria Galojan With this somewhat ambitious title she glorified herself. Galojan's story is one of strangest articles I hav...
Estonia needs a bail out package (Response to The sexiest man in Estonia) by Kadri Simson Centre party faction chairperson Postimees 4 September On 2 September, British journalist, Abdul Turay commented about my position that Estonia needs to boost its economy with a support packet model like US president Obama's. Looking critical at the content of the article, gives rise to the question, did the foreign journalist critically read through the proposal. The journalist understands that aid packets by the governments of the USA and Great Britain are above all to get banks out of difficulties and points to how this proposal is irrelevant in Estonia, as here we don't have our own banks. Unfortunately Turay is fighting with non-existent adversaries, because my proposals for an economic boost packet didn't even deal with banks, in that part. Obama package content, which deserves to be followed in Estonia, is compensation for decrease in internal demand through state ord...
The sexiest man in Estonia Return of the silent majority (well almost) By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 2 September 2009 The three faces of Savisaar At a festival at Linnahall a public figure stepped on the stage, gave a speech and announced it was his birthday. The crowd oohed and aahed like he was a movie star. They were lapping up his every word, they loved him. This was more than just charisma, this was pure sexual magnetism. Unless the paper have stuck a picture of Brad Pitt next to the story, you know where this is heading. There is more to Edgar Savisaar than Estonia's answer to Brad Pitt though. He is more of a cross between the aforementioned Hollywood star, Richard Nixon and Jesus. A visitor to Estonia would get the impression that everybody, everywhere hates the mayor of Tallinn. A friend described how her 14 year old daughter had scrawled abuse on Savisaar's poster, which for some inexplicable reason was in the school poster board. Actually s...
How Estonia made Michael Jackson a megastar By Abdul Turay Years ago as an undergraduate student I had conversation with someone who was studying psychology. I didn't know anything about the subject at the time, so I asked him what he thought of Sigmund Freud. He said something so simple and so sage that I have never forgotten it. “He was a genius, but he was one genius out of many geniuses.” What he meant was that fame and genius are not the same things. Freud was one of a number of men and women doing ground breaking work in his field. Though he became more generally known by the public at large, Freud wasn't better than these other pioneers, he was simply more famous. The same principle can be applied to any field; physics, acting, invention, history and pop music. Some would have us believe that Michael Jackson was somehow superior to everybody else working in showbiz. That he was the world's greatest entertainer, a megastar in a premier l...
Paradise Lost By Abdul Turay 11 August 2009 Finally the Estonian immigration authorities have done something of which they can be proud . They are getting rid of a very nasty man. Anyone who follows current affairs in Estonia may  vaguely have heard of Craig Cobb, a bearded, 57 year old, extreme right-wing American who for the past few years has made Estonia his home. He hoped to make this country the centre for his one man campaign to promote so-called white nationalism. Tallinn is host to Cobb's Podblanc site, where mostly Russian skinhead thugs post videos of themselves committing acts of brutal violence against men, women, and even small children from ethnic minorities in Russia. Those of us who have been coming to Estonia for some years, either as visitors, investors, or as more permanent guests, have been sadden to see some of the more unsavoury characters from our part of the world show up here. Cobb is of course the worse example of this phenomenon. It...
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